Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty was a political group made up of American Patriots that originated in the pre-independence North American British colonies. The group was designed to incite change in the British government's treatment of the Colonies in the years following the end of the French and Indian War. These patriots attacked the apparatus and symbols of British authority and power through both words and actions, including terrorism. Several other societies using the Sons of Liberty name have cropped up from time to time in American history. Often, these societies bear little resemblance to the original society, except in name. Sons of Liberty in The Two Georges The Sons of Liberty were a terrorist group wanting the North American Union to be made independent and "free" of British rule. In addition, the Sons wanted the NAU to be free of Negroes, Jews, East Indians, Chinese, and homosexuals. Their doctrine called for the land to be occupied by only the pure and original settlers. An inconsistency in their demands was that they also wished the land to be rid of the Red Indians who predated the white settlers.The Two Georges, pg. 55 mpb. The Sons' rabid racialism actually hindered the achievement of their stated purpose, to achieve independence from Britain - since it prevented them from forming an alliance with other groups potentially opposed to British rule, such as the Spanish-speaking Nuevespañolans in the Southwest of the NAU or the French-speakers in the province of Quebec to its Northeast.Ibid., pg. 249 mpb. The ethnic group where the Sons found most support were the Irish, especially the impoverished coal miners doing hard work at appalling conditions, but also many of the better-off Irish at Boston. The Irish continued to nurture, even after a century and more, the bitter memory of the Potato Famine and of many forms of oppression and injustice which they suffered both in their homeland and in America. The great wave of immigration by desperate Irish across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1830s and 1840s coincided with the British government freeing the Negro slaves in North America, as elsewhere in the Empire, and providing Negroes with opportunities for upward social mobility, especially via the civil service. The Irish feeling of envy and frustration, born then, reinforced the same strong anti-Negro bias held by the former slave-owners of the NAU Southeast who were already members of the organisation. The Independence Party, publisher of the newsletter Common Sense, was regarded as the public face of the Sons, but this was legally unproven.Ibid., pg. 599 mpb. In June 1995, the Sons successfully stole The Two Georges from the Upper California governor's mansion in New Liverpool while the painting was on a tour of the NAU, using the murder of steamer millionaire "Honest" Dick as a diversion. The theft led to a continent wide investigation by Colonel Thomas Bushell and Captain Samuel Stanley of the RAM. The theft was part of a grander plot to assassinate King-Emperor Charles III.Ibid., generally. As he committed regicide when he ordered the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Oliver Cromwell was a hero to the Sons in the 1990s. The more violent members of the Sons cropped their hair short and called it the "Roundhead look", a nod to Cromwell's followers.Ibid., pg. 86 mpb, 66 hc. References Sons of Liberty * Category:Paramilitary Organizations